Family of brain-dead California girl weigh offers to keep her on life support

OAKLAND, Calif. — Relatives of a 13-year-old girl who was declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy were debating whether to accept the aid of nursing homes and outside groups that have proposed moving the child so she can be kept on life support, a family lawyer said Thursday.

A religious group that has a facility in New York is among the organizations that have offered to care for Jahi McGrath, said the lawyer, Christopher Dolan. He declined to identify those making the offers but described them as “people who are firmly committed to the concept of life.”

“Offers are coming in, and there’s a real demonstration of support,” Dolan said, adding that strangers have been prompted to contact the family by publicity surrounding Jahi’s case and her mother’s fight to keep Children’s Hospital Oakland from removing the ventilator and IV fluids that are keeping the girl’s body functioning.

Among the factors relatives will be weighing are the potential costs of ongoing specialized care out-of-state and whether any of them would be able to go and stay with Jahi, Dolan said.

The family also is discussing if it should accept the opinions of doctors who say Jahi has no chance of recovering, or if it should appeal a judge’s decision that allows the hospital to take her off life support Monday, he said.

“They are going to start having those discussions as a family today,” Dolan told the Oakland Tribune on Thursday. “They are very difficult, heart-wrenching decisions, obviously, and they need time among themselves to figure out what they’re going to do. They’ll come to those decisions in their own time.”

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